Gripping fastener



Oct. 13, 1936. I 3, PLACE 2,057,587

GRIPPING FASTENER Filed June 20, 1930 Zlwumtoc Patented Oct. 13, 1936 r 2,057,587

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GRIPPING FASTENER I Bion 0. Place, Detroit, Mich., assignor of onehalf to George E. Gag'nier, Detroit, Mich.

Application June 20, 1930, Serial No.- 462,633

9 Claims. (Cl. 24-215) This invention relates to spring or snap upon the fastener of said patent by disposing fasteners, preferably of the one-piece type. The the arms that connect the head of the fastener spring or snap fastener of thisinventiomis parand the shank, so that said arms may cooperate ticularly adapted for securing trim. material to with the under-side of the head to provide jaws the inside of automobile bodies, though it should between which the covering material may be be'understood that the fastener is capable of bepp d. ing put to many other uses. This invention also aims to improve upon the It is frequently desirable to attach snap fastenfastener of said patent by disposing the shank ers to the material that is to be secured by them of the fastener adjacent the edge of the head 10 to a supporting/structure of any kind. This is thereof, at a point substantially spaced from 10 to enable the material to which the fasteners the point at which the arms of the fastener are are attached to be readily applied to the supportconnected to the loop, constituting the head ing structure by simply bringing the fasteners thereof, to the end that the shank is substaninto registry with the sockets or apertures,- protially spaced with respect to the portions of the i5 videdin the supporting structure to receive them, fastener that connect said arms and said head,

and applying pressure to cause the fasteners to so that the opening in the covering material snap into holding position. through which the fastener passes if an open- Fasteners have been. proposed that were asing is made, may be disposed substantially to 'sembled with respect to the covering material one side of the opening in the supporting strucby passing the shanks thereof through openture that receives the shank of the fastener 2 ings in the covering material provided to rewhen it is in operative position. ceive them. Such arrangement is sometimes not In using snap fasteners assembled with reentirely satisfactory if the holes in the covering spect to the panel as above described, it is frematerial have to be formed very near to the quently desirable to be able to shift the fastener edges thereof in order that the fastener may laterally to bring it exactly opposite the socket 25 be located in a position close to the edges of the openings in the supporting structure provided to material, as is frequently desirable. receive 'it. Relatively complex multi-part sheet When the covering material consists of panels, metal constructions have been heretofore proeach including a body and a cloth covering for posed, to enable this to be brought about. By 3 one face, such as are customarily employed to the use of the present invention it is only'necesfinish the interior of automobile bodies, it is sary to provide a relatively narrow slot of elondesirable to attach the fasteners to the panel, gated form to enable the fastener to be shifted after the covering material has been applied laterally along the length of said slot in order to the front face thereof. This can be accomto bring itinto proper position for assembly with plished by forming specially formed slots in the respect to the socket in the supporting structure 35 body of the panel as described in my Patent to which it is to be applied, the fastener of the iii/722,944; granted July 30, 1929. present invention gripping the portions of the This invention aims to improve upon the concovering material adjacent said elongated slot struction disclosed in the patent just referred to, frictio'nally, which permits the fastener to be 40 by providing a fastener that can be associated slidably shifted in bringing it into position. Or, 40 with the covering material so that the parts of the fastener may simply grip the edge inturned the fastener serve to firmly grip saidv covering or otherwise, of the covering material thus avoidmaterial and pass therethrough at a point subing perforation of such material. stantially out of alignment with the shank of the The primary object of the invention accord,- fastener, to the end that the perforation of the ingly is, to provide a one-piece wire spring fascovering material may be made relatively small tener that may be readily assembled with reand at a point spaced from the edge of the coverspect to the covering material, without necesing material, although the gripping portion of sitating the perforation of the covering material the fastener may exert its holding function imimmediately adjacent the edges thereof, or withmediately adjacent the edge of the covering out necessitating the formation of slots of ir- 50 material. regular form, the latter requiring special dies to A fastener having some of the'characteristics punch them in the covering material. I of the fastener of the present invention is dis A still further object of the invention is to closed in my patent #1,679,26 6 granted July 31st, provide a one-piece wire spring fastener, of the 1928. Thepresent invention aims to improve snap type, that may be readily assembled with 55 "2 respect to thecovering material by inserting the same in a straight slot from the rear face of the covering material, if desired, and that is so formed as to frictionally grip the covering material at the portion thereof adjacent the slot through which the fastener passes.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a snap fastener of the one-piece wire type,,that may be assembled with respect to covering material so as to grip the same, and

- that may, at the same time be adjusted so as to elongated slot that may be formed in the covering material at a point substantially spaced from the edge thereof by means of ordinary rule dies, that may be inexpensively made and operated at a low labor cost.

" A still further object of the invention-is to provide a fastener that may be assembled with respect to covering material by simply frictionally gripping the imperforated edges thereof.

Further objects of the invention will appear as a description thereof proceeds, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which.

Figure 1 is a fragmentary front view of covering material applied to a supporting structure fastener.

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the fastener as seen from the right of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a side elevation of the fastener as viewed from the left of Figure 4.

- to avoid unnecessary sharp bends.

- Figure 6 is a sectional view showing amodified 'use'of' the fastener requiring no perforation of the covering material.

Like reference characters indicate'like parts throughout the several figures.

The fastener of thisinvention is preferably constructed from a single piece of spring wire and in its final form comprises a head I0, means ll arranged to cooperate with the underside of the head of the fastener to grip material, to be held in place by said fastener, between the head and said means, and a shank l2 extending in a plane approximately at right angles to the planes of said head and said means. The mid-portion of the wire is bent to form the head and the means l'l while the shank l2 of the fastener is formed by the ends of the wire.

Preferably the head if! is formed by bending the central portion into the form of an open loop l3 of any suitable form, although preferably circular as illustrated in the drawing in order The portions of the wire immediately adjacent the ends of the loop l3 are bent downwardly approximately at right angles to the plane of the loop as indicated at H and I (Figure 5) providing relatively short legs l6. Such legs are made of a length corresponding approximately to the thickness of the material that is to be attached. by the fastener, or, preferably, a little less than the thickness of said material, so that a firm frictional grip may be provided between the head l3 and the arms l'lthat are formed by bending in the-manner more fully hereinafter pointed out.

The arms I! may be carried substantially parallel to the plane of said head,a distance slightly less than the diameter ofv the head so that the shank ll of the fastener is spaced substantially laterally of the legs l6 which pass through the openings in the material in a manner hereinafter described.

The shank of the fastener'lncludes the two ends of the wire formed by bending the wire substantially at right angles to the legs 11, as indicated at l9. Said ends are bowed between the tips thereof and the bends l9, as illustrated at 20, the arrangement providing divergently disposed holding elements 2| and 22, and convergently disposed guiding elements 23 and 24. The tips of the wire may be disposed in over,- lapped relation as shown so that the fastener may readily be entered in an opening or socket designed to receive it.

The fastener just described may be put to a number of uses as above stated. It is particularly designed for securing the trim panels of automobile or similar bodies in position with respect to the supporting structure of the body. When put to this use the fastener is applied in the manner illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing, in which the numeral 25 designates a fragment of the body of a trim panel. Such bodies are usuallyconstructed of fibrous material such as cardboard or paper reinforced with steel, or of any other relatively stiif material. Such panels are usually attached by applying fasteners thereto adjacent the edges thereof at spaced intervals along said edges, since it is desirable in order that the panel may be firmly held against the inside of the body that the panel be secured as close to the edges thereof asfeasible. By using fasteners such as just described, the body need not be perforated close to the edge of the panel although the holding elements of the fastener may be located close to the edge of the body of the panel.

In order to permit ready assembly of the fasteners with respect to the body, said body is provided with relatively narrow elongated slots 26 disposed at intervals along the edges thereof at some distance spaced inwardly from the extreme edges. Such slots, in view of the fact that they are spaced substantially inwardly from the edge of the panel and in view of the further fact that they are of relatively narrow width, do not materially weaken the panel. The fasteners are applied to the panels by inserting the closed portion of the loop l3 through the slot 26 and tilting the fastener slightly to body of the panel in the manner just described.

'It will be observed that, since the slot 26 is elongated sufficiently to permit the bowed portions 20 of the shank of the fastener to pass freely therethrough, after thefasteners have .been assembled with respect to the body, they are capable 'of being shifted laterally along the length of the slot so as to vary their position somewhat in order to enable the shanks of the fastener to be brought exactly opposite the openings or sockets that are intended to receive them.

The outer face of the body 25 of the trim panel may be covered by a cloth covering, of any desired character. Such coveringmay be applied to the panel before the fasteners'are assembled with respect thereto by lappingthe edges of the fabric around the edges of the body 25 and by stitching the fabric thereto in a manner well known in the art. The fasteners may be applied to such a covered panel in which event the heads Ill will be disposed when the fasteners are in position, between the cloth covering and the outer side of the body 25.

After the fasteners have been assembled with respect to the panel the panel is applied to the inside of the body by causing the shanks [2 of the fasteners to enter pro-formed perforations or sockets in the supporting structure. ment of such supporting structure is designated by numeral 21 in Figure 2,.and such structure is provided, at intervals corresponding to the spacing of the fasteners in the panels, with perforations 28. The perforations'28 may be disposed close to the edges of the supporting structure as illustrated. that is, in a position substantially spaced laterally of the elongated slots 26 in the body of the panel.

The panel is then applied to the supporting structure by inserting the shanks of the fasteners in the openings 28 and applying pressure along the length of said shanks. This action causes the guiding portions 23 and 24 to wedge the holding portions 2! and 22 toward each other permitting the widest portion of the fastener to pass through the opening 28. After this has been accomplished the holding portions 2| and 22 spread apart, and as the panel is forced against the supporting structure, said holding portions firmly grip the edges of the openings or perforations 28, holding the panel in position by a wedging action that tends to draw the panel toward the supporting structure. It will be observed that the wedging action just refered to is effective immediately adjacent the edges of the panels although the fasteners do not pass through the panels at this point. The fastener of this invention accordingly secures the panels with respect to the supporting structure as effectively as ifthe fasteners had traversed the panels immediately adjacent the edges thereof, although this result is accomplished by this invention without weakening the panels, as would be necessary to bring this about with the ordinary form of fastener.

While the construction just described represents the present'preferred manner of utilizing the fastener, it will be readily understood that the describedv fastener capable of being used in many other relations andthat it may be applied to the edges of the panels without perforating them by simply entering said edges between the arms 11 and the loop l3 so that the fastener is frictionally retained with respect to said edges.

A construction of the latter type in which the fastener is concealed is shown in Fig, 6, in which the covering material 29 is imperforated.

A frag The margins of said material are folded inwardly at 30 forming a nicely-rounded, neatappears edge 3| spaced from the inner surface of the material, which may be a cloth covered panel or a section of an externally ornamented or unornamented metallic or fibrous material. The improved snap fasteners simply applied at intervals along the folded edges by causing said edge to enter between the head 10 of the fastener and the means ll thereof that cooperates with the underside of said head to form jaws which frictionally grip said edge, though the fasteners may be slid along the edge, to bring them into proper position. The covering material or panel is applied as above de scribed with reference to Figure 2 by simply causing the shank I2 of each fastener to enter an opening or socket 32 in the supporting structure 33. I

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive,

the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What I claim and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. A one-piece wire spring fastener comprising a head, arms carried by said head and arranged in spaced relation thereto in a plane approximately paralleling the plane of said head, and a separate and independent relatively stiff holding element carried by each of said arms and extending away therefrom in a plane approximately at right angles to the planes of said arms and head, each of said holding elements being arranged to present a holding surface disposed normally in divergent relation to the other so that the divergency of said surfaces may be varied by relative adjustment of said separate and independent holding elements.

2. A one-piece wire spring fastener, comprising a head, arms carried by said head and arranged in spaced relation thereto in a plane ap-' proximately paralleling the plane of said head, and a separate and independent relatively stiff holding element carried by each of said arms and extending away therefrom in planes approximately at right angles to the planes of said arms and head, said holding elements being arranged to present holding surfaces disposed normally in diverging relation to ,each other so as to put said arms under torsion when said elements are moved toward each other, and convergently disposed guiding elements secured to each of said holding elements.

3. A one-piece wire spring fastener complete in itself, comprising a head formed by bending the mid-portion of said wire into the form of a loop, bending portions of said wire adjacent said mid-portion toward the closed portion of said loop in a plane spaced from, but approximately parallel to the plane of said loop, and holding and guiding elements formed by bending the ends of said wire away from said planes in planes substantially normal to the planes of said loop and arms and by bowing said ends between said portions and the tips thereof so that said ends diverge to form holding elements and then converge to form guiding elements.

4. A one-piece wire spring fastener of relatively stiff material, comprising a head formed by bending the mid-portion of said wire into a loop, then bending the portions of said wire adjacent said mid-portion towards the closed side of said loop to form a pair of arms disposed in a plane spaced from said head and in substantial parallelism thereto, the end portions of said wire beyond said arms being bent away from said arms so that said portions extend substantially at right angles to the planes of said loop and arms, said end portions being bent outwardly between said arms and the tips of said portions to form converging guiding portions remote from said head and diverging holding portions adjacent said arms.

5. A one-piece wire spring fastener, comprising a head formed by bending the mid-portions of the wire into the form of a loop, and means formed by bending the portions adjacent said mid-portions to form a pair of arms arranged to cooperate with the under-side of said loop to grip material to be held by said fastener between said head and said arms, and an expansible and contractible shank extending away from said loop and arms in planes approximately at right angles to the planes of said loop and arms to engage the supporting 'member to which said material is to be secured by means of said fastener upon contraction and subsequent expansion of said shank.

6. A one-piece wire spring fastener, comprising a head formed by bending the mid-portion of the wire in the form of a loop, a pair of arms formed by bending the portions of the wire adjacent said mid-portion toward the closed portion of said loop, but in spaced relation to the plane of said loop, and holding elements arms, said elements providing divergent surfaces and beingcapable of being moved toward and from each other to reduce the angle formed between them.

formed entirely from a single piece of metal and having a hook-like base, a pair only of projections extending from said base and having edges shaped to'make snap fastening engagement with cooperating socket means and each of said projections being offset relative to. each other in such a manner as to permit them to overlap each other in scissors-like fashion when moved toward each other during engagement with and disengagement from the socket means.

8. A snap fastener stud formed from a single piece of metal and having a U-shaped attaching portion anda snap fastener stud portion extending substantially perpendicular to the attaching portion, said stud portion comprising opposed-socket-engaging parts movable toward each other only in a' plane extending crosswise of the attaching portion and having cooperating relatively narrow diverging and converging edges for snap fastening engagement with a socket member.

9.-A snap fastener stud formed from wire and having a clip-like attaching portion provided with arms spaced apart to receive a support between them and a snap fastener-stud portion extending directly. from one of said arms and substantially perpendicular thereto,

said attaching portion comprising two U-shaped parts spaced from v each other to engage the support in such a manner as to prevent tipping of the fastener relative to the support and said] BYION c. PLACE. 

